Best Cheap VPN for 2024: Privacy on a Budget
The cheapest VPNs protect your privacy on a tight budget.
Our Experts
Best Cheap VPN
Surfshark
Best Cheap Alternative
PIA
Best Open-Source VPN
Proton VPN
What is the best cheap VPN right now?
Surfshark is CNET’s top pick for the best cheap VPN, thanks to its innovative feature set, outstanding speed performance, top-notch privacy protections and budget-friendly annual subscription plan. Surfshark is easy to use across all platforms and excellent for streaming -- especially if you want to maximize your Netflix viewing options. Granted, Surfshark’s monthly subscription is more expensive than the competition, but if you sign up for a yearly plan, you’ll pay far less than what you would for most other top VPNs’ annual subscriptions.
About cheap VPNs
Having the best VPN installed will keep your online experience a good one by keeping your personal information safe and secure. If you're budget-minded, you probably don't want to take on a new monthly or yearly fee. Free VPNs can offer a quick fix to this problem and keep your data and browsing behavior secure. Using a free VPN comes with a few risks: they can slow your connection speeds and limit your data usage. We recommend avoiding most free VPNs, altogether. Choosing a great cheap VPN is a great and reliable alternative that will improve your security without breaking the bank.
CNET's experts have spent years putting a variety of cheap VPNs to the test to find the best affordable options available today. All of the cheap VPN providers highlighted in our list offer an impressive load of privacy features, swift connection speeds and an added layer of security. These cheap VPN providers come with an annual fee you can choose to pay monthly or yearly -- and they're still a fraction of the price of any premium VPN provider. Whether visiting websites or using apps on your phone or tablet, your online experience will be safe no matter the mobile device you use.
The VPN market is ever-evolving, with VPN service providers changing rapidly, so we advise against signing up for a subscription that lasts two years or longer. We recommend choosing plans that are cheapest based on their one-year or one-month rates and have the best money-back guarantees. While a lot of VPN providers offer better month-to-dollar value when you go for these long-term plans, you should avoid those kinds of lengthy VPN commitments. Below, you'll find our list of the best cheap VPN services of 2024.
Watch this: Top 5 Reasons to Use a VPN
Other VPNs we tested
Mullvad VPN
Along with Proton VPN, Mullvad is another open-source VPN provider that offers its services at a competitive rate. Mullvad's simple pricing structure is vastly different than most others. The service costs $5.47 per month, whether you use it for a month, a year, 10 years or longer. Mullvad doesn't offer any sales or discounts, just a flat $5.47 fee for as many months you want to use it. That comes out to $66 for a year, which nearly matches Surfshark's annual price when not considering introductory prices.
Because Mullvad says it strives to know as little about its customers as possible, it has completely done away with recurring subscriptions so it cannot hang onto payment data longer than necessary. You can even mail Mullvad an envelope with cash to pay for the service. Mullvad automatically generates a random 16-digit account number when you sign up, and you can prepay for one, two, three, six or 12 months at a time. The company is so focused on security and privacy that you don't have to enter any personal data at signup; no email or username is required.
Mullvad is fast and offers excellent privacy, but isn't optimized for streaming. I streamed content on Netflix without any issues during my tests, but couldn’t watch anything on Disney Plus. It's otherwise an excellent option for budget-conscious VPN users who value extra attention to privacy and appreciate simplicity and straightforwardness, but you may want to go with another provider if you’re interested in streaming.
How we test cheap VPNs
We test cheap VPNs much like we do any VPN, but we pay special attention to the cost of the service to determine its overall value. We test each VPN’s features, speeds and usability across platforms. To determine speed loss, we run over 250 internet speed tests with a VPN enabled and disabled, across multiple VPN servers. We also evaluate how well the VPN performs when streaming and unblocking content from different regions worldwide. Additionally, we run DNS leak tests and look for trust signals like transparency reports and third-party security audits.
Factors to consider in a cheap VPN
Based on our experience testing, using and researching VPNs, these are the most important factors to consider when choosing a cheap VPN.
Cost
If your objective is to find the cheapest VPN for your needs, then the cost of the VPN will likely be your primary consideration. While some VPNs cost up to $100 or more per year, you can get a top-notch cheap VPN with many of the same features, usability and privacy protections for $40 to $60 per year.
Privacy
Privacy is a major consideration for any VPN, regardless of what kind of VPN you want. The best VPNs all have privacy protections like a kill switch and DNS leak protection, along with a no-logs policy and AES 256-bit encryption. Depending on the level of privacy you need, you can get a cheap VPN that offers additional features like Tor over VPN, obfuscation and multihop connections.
Speed
A VPN will often slow down your connection speeds by 50% or more. So you’ll want to look for a VPN that will cut your speeds by as little as possible; ideally less than 20% so that you’ll barely even notice a difference. Fast VPN speeds are essential for data-heavy activities like streaming, gaming, downloading or video conferencing. A fast VPN will easily handle all of those activities, whereas slow VPN speeds may only be suitable for basic internet browsing.
Usability
Getting a VPN on the cheap doesn’t necessarily have to mean that you have to sacrifice usability. In fact, many of the more budget-friendly VPN options are miles ahead of their pricier peers in terms of user-friendliness. Look for a VPN that works well across all the devices you want to use. Your VPN should be as easy to use as any other app you may download and should require little to no learning curve.
Best cheap VPN FAQs
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For more, check out how to choose the right VPN provider for working from home, red flags to watch out for when choosing a VPN service and seven Android VPN apps to avoid on your mobile device because of their privacy sins.